Refill Coffee brings third wave coffee to the east side

Refill Coffee, a horse trailer-turned coffee truck that began serving craft coffee in eastern Colorado Springs, is owned by Nora and Ryan Faircloth, a pair whose relationship is grounded in coffee. They met in 2001 while both were employed at Smokey Row Coffee in Pella, Iowa.

"I also worked at the management with Caribou Coffee, so we both have a long history of working with coffee,” notes Nora.

At the time, they discussed how they'd both like to own a café one day, but over the years (and miles) the opportunity to start a brick-and-mortar spot never came up. In January 2017, Nora saw an article on the internet about someone who'd turned a horse trailer into a gin bar, and inspiration struck. The couple bought a trailer and started refurbishing it in late February and opened for business in late June.

Currently, Refill serves Switchback Coffee Roasters beans exclusively, though Nora hopes they'll be able to offer local options in the near future to highlight more of the good coffee being roasted in the Springs. That said, the menu's fairly bare-bones, offering drip coffee and basic espresso drinks. Nora has no intention of serving “froufrou drinks you might find at Starbucks… we want to highlight a good coffee.”

They do offer syrups from Oregon-based Holy Kakow for their drinks, as well as a few non-dairy milk options at no additional charge.

“We’d love the support for a brick-and-mortar location," she says, "but for right now, we’re bopping around town and showing people what can be done out of a horse trailer.”